Dr Elisa Bortolas
Hi! I'm Elisa, a postdoctoral research fellow in Astrophysics at the University of Milano Bicocca, working in the B MASSIVE group within the Physics Department.
My research focuses on the physics of galactic nuclei, where my favourite astrophysical objects, supermassive black holes, reside. I spend most of my time performing advanced numerical simulations to explore the dynamics of stars and gas about single or binary supermassive black holes.
In the bigger picture, my research aims at making predictions for PTA and LISA, the gravitational wave facilities that will soon enable us to probe the low-frequency gravitational Universe.
Research Interests
Generation of low-frequency gravitational wave sources
Dynamical evolution of supermassive black hole binaries, intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals
Generation of tidal disruption events about massive black holes
Stellar dynamics in the the Galactic Centre
Computational Astrophysics and high performance computing
Education
March 2019: PhD in Astronomy, University of Padova
September 2015: Master cum laude in Astrophysics and Space Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca
October 2013: Bachelor cum laude in Physics, University of Milano-Bicocca
Professional appointments
11/2020 – now: Postdoctoral research fellow, Physics Department, University of Milano-Bicocca
11/2018 – 10/2020: Postdoctoral research fellow, Institute for Computational Science, University of Zuerich
Languages
Italian (native), English (fluent), Spanish (basic), French (basic)
For more info, check out this link.
On the personal side...
To list a few of my big passions:
I absolutely love travelling, long walks in the nature, learning about new cultures and remote lands.
Music is one of my biggest passions, I am fanatic about 60-70s rock but I like almost any kind of music!
I am really sociable and I really like spending time with nice people, chatting and having fun :)
And actually... I like a lot of things about life, and I may get enthusiast about anything you mention!!